After receiving a new motor for my lathe I have finally started working with some big blanks again. First one is a blank in Maple. From this blank I have turned a salad bowl, or food bowl/fruit bowl. At least it is 100% food safe and intended for serving food. It is treated in a way that allows it to withstand water and wet/moist foods. It can also be cleaned in water (even with some soap). As long as it is not put in the washing machine it should be OK. It should not be used to store liquid/moist food over time, then stains can occur.

It feels good to fill the workshop with shavings again after a (seemingly long) period where I've only dealt with "small" projects. I still have several major blanks lying around, so it will be more of these projects ahead.

After the bowl was turned and sanded to 600K , I soaked it in water and left it to dry overnight. This is a good way to rais the grain of the wood. The next day I put it back on the lathe and polished off the upright fibers with fine steel wool (0000). After doing this, you get a bowl which hardly changes surface characteristics when exposed to water.

In advance I had made ​​my own mixture of walnut oil, beeswax and a few drops of orange oil. All three 100% non toxic ingredients. The ingredients were mixed together in a bath of boiling water and then cooled to room temperature. By a proper mixing ratio of walnut oil and beeswax, you'll get a consistency which can be compared with softened butter. When you rub this on with your fingers, it melts slightly and the walnut oil and the beeswax penetrates inn too the wood. The Orange oil is intended to provide some good smell. But his time I used a little too little, so it does'nt smell orange at all...

Yesterday I finally received a working motor for my NOVA 1624 lathe! And today I installed it. And I'm very excited. The first thing that struck me when I started it, was that the old engine obviously NEVER worked as it should!Since the lathe is of the favorable type (price wise), I have obviously not set all sorts of demands to it. It is after all not a Hi-End product. There was some vibrations from the motor, but I found out it went OK as long as I had some "slack" in the gear-belt. (It says in the user manual that you should not tighten it too much,
to avoid unnecessary vibrations.) Now I understand that was rather naive. I wish I had tested a perfect working lathe for comparison... At least: The new engine works with less sound and less vibration than the old one ever did. And now I do not need to have "slack" in the gear-belt to avoid vibrations and noice.It was'nt until things got really bad with the old motor I realized something was wrong. And now I'm glad I've got everything working well.This is at least something I've learned from. AndnowI'm really looking forwardto workwith the newmotor andtake onlargerprojectsagain :)